The United States is still facing a potentially devastating sovereign debt default, after senators failed to agree on terms to reopen the federal government and raise the countrys borrowing limit.

Republicans and Democrats -- at war over the countrys finances and ideological direction for more than two weeks -- tried to shed a positive light on a weekend of talks that despite the threat of global economic censure did not produce a solution.

The Senate convened a rare session to try and break the budgetary impasse that prompted the government to shut down on October 1st.